Trump Makes Gains As Battle Heats Up

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Washington (CNN)A bid by Democratic officials in Minnesota to oust Donald Trump from the state's ballot on a technicality has failed.

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party saying the state GOP did not choose alternate electors at the state convention and then only cleared that up by doing so in private.

The state's high court said DFL leaders waited too long to file the complaint, and did not leave enough time for consideration of the challenges.

The challenge charged that the State Republican Party ignored state law by not holding a proper convention to elect its electors.

Minnesota is a reliably Democratic state, having last voted for a Republican when Richard Nixon won re-election in 1972.

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Electors submitted to the state's secretary of state are the people who will officially cast Minnesota's votes for president. Trump only made the ballot at the last minute thanks to a late scramble by state Republicans who discovered that their nominee was not yet on the ballot.

Minnesota's Republican Party last week called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said their elector selection complied with state and party rules.

"Donald Trump got on our ballot fair and square, and it is outrageous that the Democrat Party would actually try to rig the election this way," GOP chair Keith Downey said in a statement. "It sure smells bad when the Democrat Party petitions the Democrat Secretary of State to remove the Republican candidate from the presidential ballot."